James Ambrose Aylward

James Ambrose Aylward was born in Leeds in 1813 and received his education at the Dominican Priory of St. Peter in Hinckley. Following his ordination in 1836, he served as a teacher in the attached secular college, taking charge of higher classical studies in 1842 and directing the school as headmaster until its closure in 1852. He subsequently moved to Woodchester, where he served as Lector of Philosophy and Theology before becoming the first Prior of the newly established religious house. He died at Hinckley in 1872 and was buried in the cloister yard at Woodchester. Aylward contributed numerous sacred poems to early volumes of the Catholic Weekly Instructor, and his theological essay titled Essays on the Mystical Element in Religion, and on Ancient and Modern Spiritism was published posthumously in 1874. His extensive manuscript translations of medieval Latin hymns were later praised and incorporated by Orby Shipley in his landmark collection Annus Sanctus (1884).